This disclosure relates generally to computer-based mechanisms for processing data sets, and more particularly to techniques for precisely executing processes on large data sets.
Many information processing applications involve statistical ranking or classification of large numbers of objects. These objects are represented by large volumes of structured data organized in relational tables that include attributes with values, which are typically numerical. The attribute values describe the objects. The statistical ranking or classification of objects is performed on the basis of the values of these attributes.
Objects so understood are typical of business applications where objects such as products or sales orders have attributes such as price or date with numerical values, and the data describing these objects is typically stored in relational databases. Applications dealing with such objects may often need to cluster the objects for the purposes of classification or ranking. For large numbers of objects, it is of great practical importance to use efficient clustering algorithms in order to economize on the computational resources required to implement those algorithms.